US President Barack Obama says America and the rest of the world will be forced to apply a “cost” to Russia if it continues down its path of annexing Ukraine’s Crimea region.
Speaking alongside Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Ukraine’s interim prime minister whose legitimacy Russia does not recognise, President Obama said the US “will stand with Ukraine”.
Mr Obama added that the US “completely rejects” plans for a Crimean referendum, which he said had been put together in a “slapdash” fashion.
Mr Yatsenyuk said Ukraine would “never surrender” to Russia.
Earlier on Thursday, the G7 group of major economies warned Russia against annexing Crimea, as EU countries drew up plans for sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes.
Leaders of the G7, including David Cameron, called on Russia to “cease all efforts to change the status of Crimea contrary to Ukrainian law and in violation of international law” and to halt a referendum, due to take place on 16 March, on whether the region should reunite with Russia.
In a statement the G7 said that it would not recognise the outcome of the referendum because it would violate the Ukrainian constitution and warned Russia that if it annexed Crimea “we will take further action individually and collectively”.
Mr Cameron said he wanted to impose travel restrictions on some Russian MPs as the Crimean parliament moves to take ownership of Ukrainian state companies in Crimea.
Speaking to journalists on a flight to Israel, he said the UK would push for the proposed travel bans to include “some prominent Russian MPs” and “people who have been pushing for the unacceptable steps that have been taken”.
Previously, Downing Street had indicated that measures could target “officials” in Vladimir Putin’s adminisration. His latest announcement could apply to Russian MPs who are behind legislation to legitimise the result of Sunday’s referendum in Crimea.
On Monday, EU foreign ministers, including Britain’s William Hague, will meet in Brussels to discuss further sanctions, which would not affect President Putin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, or other senior members of the Russian government.
The prospect of imposing travel bans on Russian MPs was discussed at a meeting of EU officials in London on Tuesday.
Having already withdrawn co-operation with Moscow on a range of issues as an immediate response to Russia’s effective military takeover of Crimea at the end of February, the meeting agreed that a second phase could include travel bans and asset freezes if the Putin regime refuses to talk to Ukraine, with the possibility of further economic sanctions if the situation escalates.
Mr Cameron admitted that the readiness of all EU states to agree on “tough and important” measures had surprised some people. “Everyone was expecting that the US would take a series of steps and the EU would fall short,” he said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said if no progress was made by Monday, EU foreign ministers would impose sanctions.
The first deputy prime minister of Crimea said that the region would soon take control of Ukrainian state-owned companies in the area. Rustam Temirgaliev said: “In the coming days, the transfer is being prepared .. for a series of assets, belonging to the Ukrainian state which are located on the territory of Crimea.”